Research Security and International Engagement

To support UCI's continued engagement and collaboration in research with the international community while also addressing the federal government's concerns about research security and international engagement, the Office of Research created this website to provide helpful resources and updates on this evolving compliance area.

  • Conflict of Commitment (UC OATS)
  • Conflict of Interest in research
  • Federal Grant Applications and Annual Progress Reports
  • Cybersecurity
  • Foreign Travel Security
  • Research Security Training
  • Export Control Training
  • Research Data Guidance
  • UC Huawei Moratorium

Best Practices

  • Develop your awareness of potential risks

    • Determine what might make you a person of interest to international entities:
      • Research and work in these areas due to national security and economic competitiveness concerns
      • Expertise and research, or political endeavors
      • Privileged access to locations, items, data, and/or people
      • Knowledge of research activities, security protocols, networks, and/or sensitive personnel information

  • Prevent yourself from becoming a research security target

    • Understand and share the Statement of UCI Employee Obligations related to External Individual Engagements (outlines key UCI obligations) with potential entities you may be interested in working with to avoid conflict and non-compliance
    • Be mindful of requests for information or quickly developed relationships that seem a little "off"
    • Be discreet with information shared, even if it seems trivial
    • Avoid posting information that could be compromising or sensitive
    • Limit social media access to those you know
    • Vet individuals soliciting connections into professional networking sites- do not accept individuals who have not contacted you otherwise, do not have shared expertise, or otherwise invitations seem "different"
    • Carefully consider motives for gifts, honors, or unique opportunities
    • Be mindful of requests from an entity to keep your relationship/affiliation with that entity confidential
    • Use strong passphrases/complex passwords for accounts or devices

  • Protect yourself while traveling abroad

    UCI Information Security has a helpful website on International Travel- Information Security Guidance with tips and resources to help keep your information safe while traveling internationally.

    The most important guidance is to travel only with the data and devices that you need.

Tools

Research Security & International Engagement Team

Nancy Lewis

Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Administration

Chair of the Research Security & International Engagement Committee

Grace Park

Director, Research Engagement and Compliance

Chair of the Research Security & International Engagement Committee

Nadia Wong

Research Compliance & Outreach Manager

Oversee the Research Security & International Engagement compliance program

Michelle Hong

Research Engagement & Compliance Officer

Manage federal funding reviews; administrative support for the RSIEC

Joanna Arias

Research Engagement & Compliance Officer

Export Control liaison